Putting it mildly, it’s somewhat against accepted British culture for a woman to start boldly eyeing boys up and down in an alleyway outside a London pub. Irrelevant as that may be to the photographs here, that was the impulse when a few of the outfits were glimpsed the other night at Stella McCartney’s menswear launch, in an un-renovated public house tucked away behind Hatton Garden, the centuries-old haunt of the jewelry trade. Suffice it to say, the personal inspection couldn’t be completed that forensically, what with shyness and a thicket of Stella’s friends soon intervening. The hostess had a tip for what to look out for, though. “Go see the double-breasted suit jacket! I took it straight from my dad!”
The Paul McCartney jacket—now part of a Glen plaid suit with narrow trousers—may originally have been made by Edward Sexton, with whom Stella did an internship on Savile Row when she was at Central Saint Martins, experience that means she has not come to her menswear collection without knowledge. The camel overcoat in the collection seemed to have been patterned after the same sort of establishment template, as well as a few other substantial tweed coats (one with Prince of Wales sleeves) and a duffle. There was a lot else going on, too, in a collection she had shot on very young men, but which is surely is aimed at a cross section of the fashion-interested. Just as in her womenswear, knits were a strength—especially the boxy, oversize cardigans—and quite forgiving, although the narrow-leg pants with two horizonal zippered pockets were surely something which only someone extremely lithe could get away with. Sure enough, the lads outside the pub were wearing them.
